Today I decided I had to make pasta with beets. Nevermind that I am the only one in my house that will actually eat beets...I really just had to make this pasta.

This bright pink, cling wrapped ball is all natural!

Since the onset of football (and fantasy football) season, I've found myself basically cooking for 1: Me. Boy-O has newly entered the "cereal stage" and insists on eating cold cereal for 2 meals a day. Maybe I lack the parenting skills needed to insist that he should eat something else, but for breakfast and lunch, I just don't sweat it. And my Husband, since he's been busy with fantasy football drafts and pre-season games for the beginning of September, (somethings that I completely avoid - like all sports) has been eating out or just needing something quick...partially why I've been making all kinds of sandwiches lately. (Tuna Salad with a layer of the Roasted Red Pepper Salsa is really good!)

It's kind of nice to have a break from dinners, I guess, but I do need a reason to be in the kitchen, or I end up knitting. I have to be careful with that since I think I'm a tense knitter and end up with very sore hands for several days after completing a project. I have to work on being a relaxed, mellowed-out knitter. Any non-drug or alcohol related tips on that would be appreciated...

Since I've been trying really hard to cut back a little on the dessert faction of my life, when I saw a recipe for beet pasta in the Outpost Exchangethat came this month, it's kind of been nagging me that I'd have to try it. I've been making pasta since 1996, I think, when my Mom gave me her Atlas pasta machine that she wasn't using. For many years after, I never bought any pasta, I just made it when I needed it - since after having it the first time, no boxed stuff could really compare.

It does make a mess of your kitchen, but it really is worth it. I never really make any flavored pastas, after reading Marcella Hazen who firmly states that pasta itself should never be flavored, and all flavors should be added on top of the pasta. I've really basically held true to her doctrine, and only made a spinach pasta once from a Saveur recipe for a really delicious Bolognese Lasagna. But bright fuschia pasta from farm market beets? Yes, please. Now I just need someone to eat it with.

Clean workstation, before the flour flew...

The Exchange recipe used no eggs and semolina flour. But if I'm going to go through the trouble of making pasta, I'm going to use eggs. Nothing compares to fresh egg pasta. So, I used

. Since I am really going to try and find someone to eat this with, I am going to experiment with freezing fresh, dried pasta. The Exchange recipe did say to refrigerate or freeze, I think due to the addition of a vegetable, since dried egg pasta will stand quite awhile if well dried beforehand.

I love Mario Batali. When I used to watch more Food Network, I liked to watch him. He is always so passionate about whatever he is doing, and it seems to me that he really WANTS you to try it too. His recipe for pasta worked well, but it was extremely sticky even more so after it rested for 30 minutes. I probably worked in about another 3/4 cup of flour while rolling it through my maker. It did make a mess, but for some reason a crazy, pink flour mess didn't really upset me too much. I did taste the raw dough, and it did taste faintly beet-y, but I'll have to wait and see how it tastes boiled up.

The Exchange recipe also served the pasta with a blue cheese sauce with walnuts, kind of a riff on a classic roasted beet salad. I think this is how I will serve it, when I make the big batch. Usually when I make pasta, I keep the little ends and unattractive noodles to eat for lunch, and this beet pasta was no exception. So tomorrow, I think I'll cook up my little batch of seconds and just mix it with s&p and olive oil, maybe a few nuts. I'm sure a picture with be forthcoming.

Currently Reading...

Photo.

This is probably the most common sight around my table. My mantra, “if in doubt, make tacos”, is indelible writing on my soul. I’ve got to get around to asking @thesteelfarmer if they can repair my cast iron plancha that I cracked. I’m still using it imperfect, but I think about it every time I make tortillas. (Basically I think about it at least once or twice a week.). #tacosporvida #tacos #fridaynight #realfood #homecook

I got 7 boxes of books packed tonight, after deciding not to be overwhelmed standing in front of the first bookcase, acting like 45 days in a box was somehow going to separate me forever from those friends. I actually hadn’t held my 1972 Webster dictionary in quite some time, and it felt familiar and weighty. Classic in denim blue and gilded in gold, I wonder what words are in there that have somehow gone out of style with newer editions. I found a 1929 copy of Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker, and spent a quarter hour leafing through it, taking note of how someone had checked key poems. Coincidence? Maybe not. And a drawing of an eye twenty years old, on a post-it as a bookmark. Careful eyes may note the long strands of hair likely belonging to the girl who left it for me. (She recalled drawing it, but I felt like it was the first time I’d seen it, strange because I do have a good memory. It makes me wonder what else I’ve forgotten that collected books might reveal to me...) #packingbooks #books #dictionary #merriamwebster #dorothyparker

Workday bake. I always think I won’t be excited about a new loaf, but fortunately that experience has yet to hit me. Each one is like a new living thing, come to take up residence for a week. Let my epitaph be “if you have bread, you have dinner.” #bake #sourdough #bread #progluten #wildyeast #breadscoring #acaseofthetuesdays

I don’t come from a family that has photos all over our walls. There are a few, carefully placed, on my parent’s’ walls - mostly taken after grandchildren happened and babies and school pictures started creeping in. Our senior pictures hiding in cabinets, there if you’re really looking. Black and whites of grandparents lurking, but not obvious. Most of us are camera shy and that’s okay. I was so full of happiness at the sight of my family yesterday that I could barely stand it. And even happier that we were all enjoying the moment so much that nobody even took out a phone once and snapped a picture as proof. These memories, made the old-fashioned way, tend to linger in the brain pan the way fleeting social media pictures could never dream to do. Today before I had to drive back my mom lifted down the copy of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that she got (I think) as a wedding gift 45 years ago to show me a white cake recipe that she’d made recently that I tasted and loved. We didn’t have Joy growing up, we had this all-encompassing tome instead. My mom and I talked casually about the recipe and pictures in this book, how both of us have always wanted to make or even just eat petit fours, and how neither of us ever have made or eaten them. After she left the kitchen to get ready for church, I realized that I wouldn’t have a picture of my mother today, but I have this book and thousands of conversations. My whole lifetime of advice and the search for the best white cake recipes to embed in my memory. That all the beauty and generosity, the practicality and steadfastness my mom has, can be held in my hands if I want. My memory holds such a clear picture, and it won’t ever fade. #mothersday #betterhomesandgardens #homecook

I maybe omitted that when I made the Lillet spiked sabayon for @the_bojon_gourmet’s trifle I served at Easter, the first batch was cooked over a rigged situation that wasn’t ideal and I got water in the custard. I was so upset. So I separated another 8 eggs and began again with a better rigged situation. I froze the questionable sabayon, figuring that it was nothing if not exceptional ice cream base. I added heavy cream, and mixed toasted pecans. It’s ridiculously rich. It’s a velvet lounge coat that very nearly warms you up as you eat. 😍 #icecream #homemade #wastenotwantnot #glutenfree #frozencustard #wiscogirl